Sauron

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Sauron (pronounced /ˈsaʊrɒn/, Quenya: "Abhorred") is the title character and the primary antagonist of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (where he is also revealed to have been "the Necromancer" from The Hobbit). In Tolkien's The Silmarillion (published after The Lord of the Rings), he is also revealed to have been the chief lieutenant of the first Dark Lord Morgoth.

[edit] Biography

[edit] First Age

In The Silmarillion it is explained that, before the godlike Valar entered the realm of Arda, Sauron originated as a spirit of the kind called a Maia (pl. Maiar). In Tolkien's letters, the author confirmed that Sauron “was of course a 'divine' person (in the terms of this mythology; a lesser member of the race of Valar)”.^[1] Though less mighty than any actual Vala, he was of the same nature as these godlike beings. Compared to many other Maiar, he was very powerful; it is noted that he was of a "far higher order" than the Maiar that later became known as Gandalf and Saruman.^[2]

The earliest part of Sauron’s career, predating the awakening of the Elves, is poorly documented. When the Valar made Almaren as their first physical abode in the world, Sauron was already secretly sympathizing with their great adversary, the evil Vala Melkor (later known as Morgoth). “Melkor knew of all that was done; for even then he had secret friends and spies among the Maiar whom he had converted to his cause, and of these the chief, as after became known, was Sauron, a great craftsman of the household of Aulë”.^[3]

Almaren was destroyed by Melkor, and the Valar established a new abode in the Uttermost West: the Blessed Realm of Valinor. They still did not perceive Sauron’s dubious loyalties, for he too became “a being of Valinor”.^[4]

At some point, Sauron left the Blessed Realm. In one text, Tolkien wrote about Sauron that “in Valinor he had dwelt among the people of the gods, but there Morgoth had drawn him to evil and to his service”. ^[5] It would seem that Sauron now definitely sided with Melkor. No longer just a spy and secret sympathizer, he deserted his service to the Valar and openly joined their great enemy.

As for Sauron's motives, Tolkien noted that "it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall...) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction." Thus "it was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him."^[6]

After joining his new master in Middle-earth, he proved to be a devoted and capable servant: “While Morgoth still stood, Sauron did not seek his own supremacy, but worked and schemed for another, desiring the triumph of Melkor, whom in the beginning he had adored. He thus was often able to achieve things, first conceived by Melkor, which his master did not or could not complete in the furious haste of his malice.”^[7]

In chapter 3 of The Silmarillion, it is recorded that by the time the Elves awoke in the world, Sauron had become Melkor’s lieutenant and was given command over the newly-built stronghold of Angband. To protect the Elves, the Valar made war on Melkor and captured him, but Sauron they did not find.

Thus, “when Melkor was made captive, Sauron escaped and lay hid in Middle-earth; and it can in this way be understood how the breeding of the Orcs (no doubt already begun) went on with increasing speed.” In the Blessed Realm, Melkor feigned reform, but eventually breached the trust of the Valar and escaped back to Middle-earth. By then, Sauron had “secretly repaired Angband for the help of his Master when he returned; and there the dark places underground were already manned with hosts of the Orcs before Melkor came back at last, as Morgoth the Black Enemy.”^[8]

Shortly after the return of Melkor-Morgoth, the Noldorin Elves also left the Blessed Realm of Valinor in the Uttermost West against the counsel of the Valar to wage war on Morgoth, who had stolen the Silmarils. In that war, Sauron served as Morgoth's chief lieutenant, surpassing all others in rank, such as Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs. Known as Gorthaur the Cruel, Sauron was at that time a master of illusions and changes of form; werewolves and vampires were his servants, chief among them Draugluin, Father of Werewolves, and his vampire herald Thuringwethil.

When Morgoth left Angband to corrupt the newly-created Men, Sauron directed the war against the Elves. He conquered the Elvish island of Tol Sirion, so that it became known as Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves.

Ten years later, Finrod Felagund, the king of Nargothrond and former lord of Tol Sirion, came there with Beren. He duelled Sauron and was defeated (in part because of the curse of Fëanor). Later, he died fighting a wolf in Sauron's dungeons to save Beren; soon afterwards Lúthien and Huan the Wolfhound defeated Sauron and rescued Beren from the dungeons.

Following the voyage of Eärendil to the Blessed Realm, the Valar finally moved against Morgoth. In the resulting War of Wrath, the Dark Lord was defeated and cast into the Outer Void beyond the world. But "Sauron fled from the Great Battle and escaped."^[9]

Shocked by the overthrow of his master, Sauron repented (truly at first, if only out of fear). He assumed his most beautiful form and approached Eönwë, emissary of the Valar, who however could not pardon a Maia like himself. Through Eönwë, Manwë as Lord of the Valar "commanded Sauron to come before him for judgement, but [he] had left room for repentance and ultimate rehabilitation."^[10] Thus Sauron now had a genuine chance of rejoining the forces of good, but he would obviously risk being sentenced to long servitude as proof of his good will. Having wielded great power under Morgoth, Sauron was unwilling to face this humiliation, and so hid in Middle-earth.

[edit] Second Age

In the Second Age, after an interval of about 1,000 years, Sauron reappeared. "Very slowly, beginning with fair motives: the reorganising and rehabilitation of Middle-earth, 'neglected by the gods,' he becomes a reincarnation of Evil, and a thing lusting for Complete Power," eventually rising to become "master and god of Men."^[11]

Yet Sauron was still able to hide his identity and his true agenda. After assuming a beautiful appearance and calling himself Annatar, "Lord of Gifts,"^[12] Sauron befriended the Elven-smiths of Eregion, and counselled them in arts and magic. Some of the Elves distrusted him, especially the Lady Galadriel in Lórien and Gil-galad, the High King of the Noldor; the Elves in Eregion did not heed their warnings, however.

With Sauron's assistance, the Elven-smiths forged the Rings of Power, which conferred great power to their bearers. Subsequently, Sauron secretly forged the One Ring in the volcanic Mount Doom in Mordor. This "One Ring to rule them all" had the power to dominate the other Rings and enslave their wearers to Sauron's will. The Rings of Power were extremely potent, however, and to accomplish his goal of creating an instrument that could dominate even them, Sauron was forced to place the greater part of his native power into it. Anyone of sufficiently strong will who possessed the One Ring had available to him much of Sauron's own power to dominate. Should the One Ring ever be destroyed, Sauron would be fatally crippled and forever unable to take shape again.

When Sauron put on the One Ring and tried to dominate the Elves, they became aware of his intent and removed their Rings. Sauron responded with military force, initiating the War of the Elves and Sauron and conquering much of the land west of Anduin. This began the Dark Years. He overran Eregion, killed Celebrimbor, leader of the Elven-smiths, and seized the Seven and the Nine Rings of Power that had been previously forged with his assistance. However, Celebrimbor had forged the Three Rings himself without Sauron's help, and these were saved and remained in the hands of the Elves. According to The Lord of the Rings, Celebrimbor entrusted the Three to Gil-galad, Galadriel, and Círdan; but according to Unfinished Tales Gil-galad received two Rings and gave one of them to Círdan afterward.

With the Elves near incapacitated, Sauron besieged Imladris, battled with Moria and Lórien, and pushed further into Gil-galad's realm. The Elves fought back, however, and with the aid of a powerful army from Númenor under their king Tar-Minastir, destroyed Sauron's army and drove it back to Mordor. The Númenóreans held the most powerful kingdom of Men at this time; they were descended from the Three Houses of the Edain who helped the Elves in their war against Morgoth, and they lived on the island of Númenor in the seas between Middle-earth and Valinor.

From this time on, Sauron became known as the Dark Lord of Mordor. He erected Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower, and built the Black Gate of Mordor to prevent any possible invasion. He distributed his 16 Rings to lords of Men and Dwarves, giving them nine and seven respectively. Dwarves proved too resilient to bend to his will (instead being overwhelmed with greed), but the Men were enslaved to Sauron as the Nazgûl, his most feared servants. Sauron regained control over all of the creatures that had served Morgoth in the First Age (such as Orcs and Trolls). Sauron also gained power over most of the Men in the East and the South, becoming their god-king.

The second Dark Lord was now at the height of his power, having become “almost supreme in Middle-earth… He rules a growing empire from the great dark tower of Barad-dûr in Mordor, near to the Mountain of fire, wielding the One Ring.”^[13]. Towards the end of the Second Age, Sauron assumed the titles of Lord of the Earth and King of Men.

In many ways, the new Dark Lord exceeded the first:

Sauron was ‘greater’, effectively, in the Second Age than Morgoth at the end of the First. Why? Because, though he was far smaller by natural [spiritual] stature, he had not yet fallen so low. Eventually he also squandered his power (of being) in the endeavour to gain control over others. But he was not obliged to expend so much of himself… [He] inherited [from Morgoth] the ‘corruption’ of Arda [the world], and only spent his (much more limited) power on the Rings; for it was the creatures of earth, in their minds and wills, that he desired to dominate. In this way Sauron was also wiser than Melkor-Morgoth.^[14]

(Morgoth had had rather desired to control the very matter of the world.)

One of Sauron’s more peculiar achievements in the Second Age was a constructed language: "It is said that the Black Speech was devised by Sauron in the Dark Years, and that he desired to make it the language of all those that served him, but he failed in that purpose.” (LotR, Appendix F). A few samples of Black Speech are cited in Tolkien’s narratives, and he noted that it "was meant to be self-consistent, very different from Elvish, yet organized and expressive, as would be expected of a device of Sauron before his complete corruption." (Parma Eldalamberon #17, p. 11). Sauron must have devised the Black Speech before he made the Ring, since it bore an inscription in that language, and it is interesting that Tolkien indicates that this was "before his complete corruption." Compare the above-cited statement that Sauron "had not yet fallen so low" as Morgoth had.

The time would come, however, when Sauron was almost wholly consumed by evil. Tolkien wrote that he did not think there could be such a thing as "Absolute Evil" ("since that is Zero"), but "in my story Sauron represents as near an approach to wholly evil as is possible. He had gone the way of all tyrants, beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of the Earth. But he went further than human tyrants in pride and the lust for domination, being in origin an immortal (angelic) spirit."^[15]

Toward the end of the Second Age, Ar-Pharazôn, the last and most powerful of the Númenórean kings, came to Middle-earth with massive armies, and Sauron's forces deserted him rather than fight. Realising he could not defeat the Númenóreans with military strength, Sauron allowed himself to be taken as a prisoner to Númenor.

Tolkien later wrote (in a letter, #211) that Ar-Pharazôn did not know about the Rings of Power and did not seize the One Ring, which Sauron retained. With its power, Sauron quickly grew from captive to adviser of the king. He established himself as High Priest of Melkor, "Lord of the Dark," and a great temple was built where human sacrifice was carried out. A decade later he convinced Ar-Pharazôn to attack Valinor itself, persuading him that whoever possessed the Undying Lands would live forever. A few years later, the greatest armament Middle-earth had ever seen landed on the shores of Valinor.

At this point Eru (God) Himself directly intervened: Númenor was drowned under the sea, and the great navy of Númenor was destroyed. Sauron's body was destroyed, but his spirit returned to Mordor and took up the One Ring. In relatively short order Sauron assumed a new physical form and began to rebuild his forces. He was unable ever again to take on the fair shapes under which he had deceived the Elves and seduced the Númenóreans, and from then on he could only rule through terror and force.

The few faithful Númenóreans were saved from the flood, and they founded the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor among the Númenórean colonists and the natives of north-western Middle-earth.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien wrote that Elendil and his sons forged the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with Gil-galad, to fight Sauron. The Alliance won a great victory on the plain of Dagorlad and invaded Mordor, laying siege to Barad-dûr for seven years. During the siege, Elendil's younger son Anárion was killed by a stone cast from the tower. Finally, Sauron was forced to emerge from his tower and fight, himself.

In the ensuing conflict, he was overthrown, slain by Gil-galad and Elendil, who themselves were slain in the act.^[16]. Elendil's sword, Narsil, broke beneath him when he fell. Taking up the hilt-shard of Narsil, Elendil's surviving son, Isildur, cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand, defeating the Dark Lord. "Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and hid in waste places." ^[17]

Elrond and Círdan, Gil-galad's lieutenants, urged Isildur to destroy the Ring by casting it into Mount Doom, but he refused and kept it for his own: "This I will have as weregild for my father's death, and my brother's. Was it not I that dealt the Enemy his death-blow?"^[18] A few years later, Isildur's party was ambushed by a band of Orcs on the way to Rivendell and overwhelmed. He put on the Ring and attempted to escape by swimming across Anduin, but the Ring — which had a will of its own and a desire to return to Sauron — slipped from his finger. He was spotted and killed by Orc-archers. The Ring remained lost beneath the water for more than 2,000 years, until it was found by a member of the river folk named Deágol. His relative^[19] Smeágol killed him for the ring, and was eventually corrupted into the creature Gollum. He took the ring, which he called his "Precious," into the Misty Mountains.

[edit] Third Age

The traumatic loss of the Ring greatly weakened Sauron. He did not swiftly rebuild, as he had done following the Downfall of Númenor. Sauron spent the first centuries of the Third Age in a dormant state.

Finally he emerged yet again, at first in a stronghold called Dol Guldur in southern Mirkwood. In Mirkwood he was known as the Necromancer (mentioned briefly in The Hobbit), but the Elves did not recognise him at first. Gandalf the Wizard stole into Dol Guldur and discovered the truth; eventually the White Council of Wizards and Elves combined to put forth their might, and Sauron was driven out of Mirkwood.

Sauron's power recovered to the point that he was able to extend his will over Middle-earth. The Eye of Sauron, as his attention and force of will was perceived, became a symbol of oppression and fear. Following his expulsion from Dol Guldur, Sauron returned to Mordor, publicly declared himself, and raised Barad-dûr anew. In preparation for a final war against Men and Elves, he bred immense armies of Orcs, augmenting them with Men from the East and South who (through their leaders) were in his service.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf discovered that the Ring had been found. He went for advice to Saruman the White, leader of the White Council, but discovered that Saruman secretly planned to either gain the Ring for himself or to make his own ring of power. Gandalf was held captive for some time, but escaped with the help of the giant eagle Gwaihir.

Meanwhile, following the capture and torture of Gollum, Sauron learned that the One Ring had been found by a Hobbit named "Baggins." Sauron sent the Nazgûl to the Shire, Bilbo's home, only to find that both Bilbo and his nephew, Frodo, had left.

At the behest of Gandalf, and unknown to Sauron, Frodo and his friends set out to take the Ring to the Elven stronghold at Rivendell. There Elrond convened a high council of the peoples of Middle-earth to decide how to handle the crisis. The council determined that the Ring must be destroyed, and Frodo and his friend Samwise Gamgee joined the Fellowship of the Ring, accepting the council's mission to destroy the Ring forever by casting it into Mount Doom.

In The Two Towers, Saruman raised a vast army on Sauron's behalf and invaded Rohan. With the help of the giant tree-herders of Fangorn forest, Gandalf and the Ents, led by Treebeard, defeated Saruman's armies. His stronghold at Isengard was overthrown and Saruman was trapped within the Tower of Orthanc.

During Saruman's confrontation with Gandalf, the palantír of Orthanc fell into the hands of the Fellowship. In The Return of the King, Aragorn, the heir of Isildur and thus rightful owner of the palantír, exploited it to create a ruse which he hoped would distract Sauron long enough to allow Frodo to reach Mount Doom and destroy the Ring. Sauron was led to believe that Aragorn had (or would soon have) the Ring. Sauron therefore attacked sooner than he had planned by sending an army commanded by his strongest servant, the Witch-king of Angmar, to overthrow Minas Tirith. (See Battle of the Pelennor Fields.)

Although Sauron's invaders were destroyed, he still had sufficient armies in reserve to recover his strength and, over the long term, win the war. He was outwitted, however, by Gandalf, who urged the captains of the West to march on the gates of Mordor in another action to divert the Dark Lord's attention long enough to allow Frodo to reach Mount Doom. The battle was joined and went very poorly for the West.

Frodo, meanwhile, reached his goal, but he failed at the last moment. Unable to resist the power of the Ring, he put it on his finger and claimed it for his own. At that moment Sauron discerned the truth and turned his gaze to Mount Doom, sending his remaining Nazgûl to capture the Ring. The attempt was futile, however: Gollum attacked Frodo and bit the Ring from his finger, but lost his footing and fell with it into the fire.

At the Ring's destruction, Sauron's power was immediately broken and his form in Middle-earth was destroyed. His departing spirit towered above Mordor like a black cloud, but was blown away by a powerful wind from the West. Barad-dûr crumbled and Sauron was permanently crippled.

Gandalf had predicted what the destruction of the Ring would mean to Sauron: "If it is destroyed, then he will fall, and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again. For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed." (The Return of the King, from the chapter The Last Debate.)

Tolkien noted that Sauron was said "to have fallen below the point of ever recovering, though he had previously recovered. What is probably meant is that a 'wicked' spirit becomes fixed in a certain desire or ambition, and if it cannot repent then this desire becomes virtually its whole being. But the desire may be wholly beyond the weakness it has fallen to, and it will then be unable to withdraw its attention from the unobtainable desire, even to attend to itself. It will then remain for ever in impotent desire or memory of desire." ^[20] Thus Sauron was "damned" in the sense that he was "reduced to impotence, infinitely recessive."^[21]

It is foreseen that the spirit of Melkor-Morgoth will eventually recover and grow and take shape again. "It would do this (even if Sauron could not) because of its relative greatness." ^[22] The "Second Prophecy of Mandos" predicts that Morgoth will return "when the world is old"^[23]. At the Dagor Dagorath or “Battle of Battles”, Morgoth is destined to die at the hands of Túrin Turambar. But the prophecy does not mention Sauron, maybe indirectly confirming that he "could not" ever recover after his Ring was destroyed.

[edit] Names and titles

In some of Tolkien's notes, it is said that Sauron's original name was Mairon or "the admirable", "but this was altered after he was suborned by Melkor. But he continued to call himself Mairon the Admirable, or Tar-mairon 'King Excellent', until after the downfall of Númenor." ^[24]

The name Sauron (from an earlier form Þauron) originates from the adjective saura in Tolkien's invented language Quenya, and can be translated as the Abhorred or the Abomination; in Sindarin (another fictional language created by Tolkien) he is called Gorthaur, the Abhorred Dread or the Dread Abomination. He is also called the Nameless Enemy. The Dúnedain (the descendants of Isildur) call him Sauron the Deceiver due to his role in the downfall of Númenor and the forging of the Rings of Power.

His two most common titles, the Dark Lord of Mordor and the Lord of the Rings, appear only a few times in The Lord of the Rings. His other titles or variants thereof include Base Master of Treachery, the Dark Lord, the Dark Power, Lord of Barad-dûr, the Red Eye, the Ring-maker, and the Sorcerer.

In the First Age (as detailed in The Silmarillion) he was called the Lord of Werewolves of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. In the Second Age he assumed the name Annatar, which means Lord of Gifts, with which he assumed a new identity and tricked the Elves into working with him to create the Rings. In the Third Age he was briefly known as the Necromancer of Dol Guldur because his true identity was still unknown.

[edit] Appearance

Nowhere does Tolkien provide a detailed description of Sauron's appearance during any of his incarnations.

According to The Silmarillion, Sauron was initially able to change his appearance at will. In the beginning he assumed a beautiful form, but after switching his allegiance to Morgoth he frequently took the appearance of a dark and terrible shadow. As part of a plan to destroy Huan, Sauron took the form of the greatest werewolf in Middle-earth's history, and then assumed several other forms when attempting to escape. He took a beautiful appearance once again at the end of the First Age in an effort to charm Eönwë, near the beginning of the Second Age when appearing as Annatar to the Elves, and again near the end of the Second Age when corrupting the men of Númenor.

One version of the story describes, in general terms, the impression Sauron made on the Númenoreans: He appeared "as a man, or one in man's shape, but greater than any even of the race of Númenor in stature... And it seemed to men that Sauron was great, though they feared the light of his eyes. To many he appeared fair, to others terrible; but to some evil."^[25]

Like Morgoth, Sauron eventually lost the ability to change his physical form (his hröa). After the destruction of his fair form in the fall of Númenor, Sauron was unable to take a pleasing appearance or veil his power again. Thereafter, at the end of the Second Age and again in the Third, he always took the shape of a terrible dark lord. Tolkien described Sauron's form in the Third Age as "that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic." (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien #246) Isildur recorded that Sauron's hand "was black, and yet burned like fire...."

Also, Gollum (who is tormented by Sauron in person) told Frodo in The Two Towers that Sauron only had four fingers on one hand ("only four fingers on the Black Hand"), suggesting that the missing finger was a sustained injury from when Isildur cut off the Ring. Another instance of Sauron's injuries being sustained from one form to another (at least for a time) is found in the tale of his battle with Lúthien and Huan in which an injury to his throat is maintained even after transformation. In the case of the missing finger, the injury would seem to have been carried over from one incarnation to the next, after an interval of centuries.

Frodo perceived Sauron as a massive eye in The Fellowship of the Ring. As Frodo saw it in the Mirror of Galadriel, the Eye of Sauron was yellow with a black slit for a pupil, rimmed with fire. Throughout The Lord of the Rings, "the Eye" is the image most often associated with Sauron. Despite the numerous references, Tolkienists debate whether this "Eye" is simply a mental icon representing Sauron’s will and attention, or whether it somehow physically exists as an actual manifestation of Sauron’s presence.

At one point Tolkien does write as if Frodo and Sam really had a glimpse of the Eye with their own physical eyes: The mists surrounding Barad-dûr are briefly withdrawn, and "one moment only it stared out...as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye… The Eye was not turned on them, it was gazing north...but Frodo at that dreadful glimpse fell as one stricken mortally." (The Return of the King, from the chapter Mount Doom.) Tolkien nowhere elaborates on the relationship between this "Eye" and the body Gollum had seen Sauron use (the incarnation with the four-fingered hand).

In Peter Jackson's trilogy of films based on The Lord of the Rings, Sauron's physical form is portrayed as being a towering "black knight" wielding a massive, jet black mace (reminiscent of Tolkien's descriptions of Morgoth); in this form, he is portrayed by Sala Baker. After his defeat at the hands of Isildur, he is thereafter portrayed as the Eye, which in the movies is regarded as an actual manifestation of Sauron. In the first movie, Jackson lets Saruman remark that Sauron cannot yet take physical form, so the audience is apparently to assume that the flaming Eye of Sauron is his disembodied spirit. This Eye hovers above Barad-dûr. In the novel, it was inside the tower, gazing out through "the Window of the Eye in Sauron’s shadow-mantled fortress" (from the chapter Mount Doom). Sauron's humanoid form appears one final time when Aragorn looks into the palantír in the extended edition of The Return of the King.

[edit] Concept and creation

Since the earliest versions of The Silmarillion legendarium as detailed in the History of Middle-earth series, Sauron undergoes many changes. The prototype of this character was Tevildo, Prince of Cats, who played the role later taken by Sauron in the earliest version of the story of Beren and Lúthien in The Book of Lost Tales. Tevildo was later replaced by Thû, the Necromancer. The name was then changed to Gorthû, Sûr, and finally to Sauron. Gorthû, in the form Gorthaur remained in The Silmarillion.

Prior to the publication of The Silmarillion Sauron's origins and true identity were unclear to those without full access to Tolkien's notes. In early editions of Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, Sauron is described as "probably of the Eldar elves."

[edit] Adaptations

In film versions of The Lord of the Rings, Sauron has been portrayed as either a humanlike creature (as in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version, The Lord of the Rings) or a physical, disembodied Eye (as in the 1980 animated The Return of the King).^[26] In the film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, Sauron is shown to have a large, humanlike form during the forging of the Ring, then being "limited" to the disembodied Eye form throughout the rest of the storyline. Though the 1978 animated film and the 2001 live-action film both show the forging of the Rings of Power, the War of the Elves and Sauron goes unmentioned and the films jump straight to the much later War of the Last Alliance. In both, Sauron does not have the beautiful form he wore as "Annatar" when he forges the One Ring, but rather the one reflecting his identity as Dark Lord. (Since he is completely covered in armour in the Jackson version, one could however argue that he may well be Annatar underneath it, maybe wearing armour to shield his body from the intense heat inside Mount Doom.)

In the Jackson film, Sauron wears plate armour, as do many others, while Tolkien never explicitly mentions any use of plate armour in Middle-earth, though there are references to mail and scale armour. The author nowhere specifically discusses what kind of armour (or even clothing) Sauron may have worn during his physical incarnations.

In Jackson's film adaptation of The Return of the King, the Eye of Sauron is shown scanning Mordor rather like a lighthouse, and can only observe one location at a time. Curiously, before the Battle of the Black Gate, Aragorn says a line from the book, "Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth!" despite earlier references in the films that Sauron lacks a physical form. The Eye falls from Barad-dûr when it collapses after the Ring is destroyed, and is destroyed with both.

In earlier versions of Jackson's script Sauron would indeed "come forth" at Aragorn's challenge, and do battle with him.^{[citation needed]} Scenes of the fight were shot, but later this idea was discarded and was replaced by a scene (in the extended version) where Aragorn kills the "Mouth of Sauron" (a representative of Sauron) before fighting a Mordor troll.

[edit] Games

Sauron appears in the Two Towers video game, but only in the cut-scene. In The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, Sauron appears on the evil side as a ring character.

Sauron is a playable character in The Lord of the Rings: Tactics for the Playstation Portable on the evil side.

Sauron is also a playable character in the The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game published by Games Workshop Ltd.

Sauron is also the main boss of The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, where the party is forced to, after the battle of Pelannor Fields, engage in a physical fight against the Eye while standing at the top of Barad-dûr.

[edit] See also

• Akallabêth
• "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
• Morgoth

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sauron at the Internet Movie Database
• Sauron at the Tolkien Gateway

• Sauron at the Encyclopedia of Arda
• Sauron at The Thain's Book
• Sauron at the Ardapedia

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